Help - hedgehog killer

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flyingfeet

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My border terrier killer a hedgehog last night - she managed to rip his spines and skin off the back off the poor hedgie.

I am fairly disgusted with her, as hedgehogs are not that plentiful around us and they eat slugs.

I have never known a dog actually get past the spines before - she is an expert at ripping toys apart though.

I muttered at her and sprayed her with the barrier flea spray she hates, so she deefinitely thought she had been a bad dog.

Is there anything I can do to stop her killing them?
 
Punishment only works for dogs if it happens the very instant they do something wrong. Punishing your dog 10 minutes after she has done something wrong is pointless as she will not understand what she done and will not connect the punishment with the bad deed.

Letting her rip up small toys just encourages the natural blood lust that terriers all have.
 
So better not to let her have toys at all?

I could only mutter at her as she is quite a sensitive soul. The flea spray was a necessary evil as she was crawling with fleas from the hedgehog.
 
i had a golden retriever who used to do pick up hedgehogs and bite them. i used to spend agonising minutes trying to prise his jaws apart while the poor hedgehog screamed, i'd bash him on the head, yell at him... nothing got through, including the pain.
eventually i realised i needed to go and check the garden for them every night before letting him out, or take him out on a lead... only way to protect the hedgehogs and save myself the awful trauma.
they're so sweet and really need the protection!
 
Wow - my very large GSD found one last week and came off much worse!

You say she is a sensitive soul - how do you chastise her normally? Could you find a ballled up hedgehog, keep a very tight hold of her, and every time she approaches it, say 'no' or use a squirty bottle?
When she responds to your command or learns to leave it, give her a treat.

And you're right to be careful, they are quite dirty.
 
Unfortunately that's terriers for you. My Patterdale Toby is 11 now and will still kill anything he thinks remotely resembles a rat! He has killed squirrels, crows, at least 3 hedgehogs (that we know of), My guinea Pigs
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, and god knows what else on his travels! I hate it but I know that it's in his blood so it's very hard to stop him. I'm not sure there is anyway you can stop yours unless you are with him all the time and teach him to 'Leave' on command.

When we got our new kitten a few months ago (we have two cats already so he is used to them) we had to keep her away from Toby to start with and gradually get him used to her, its been a slow process but now we can let Poppy out with him as long as we keep an eye on him all the time. This would obviously be impossible to do with a hedgehog though!
 
I have one that digs and digs round hedgehogs in his attempts to get at them, resulting only in my garden looking like the face of the moon. I keep a careful eye on him when he's out and shoo him away from any hedgies asap but a terriers instinct is much greater than my layabout lurchers so not sure what would work. Aversion therapy? Try and catch a hedgehog and pen it for a few days and use it to retrain the dog the same way Horsecrazy did with the kitten by very slowly introducing it? Not a clue really, it's nature and instinctive after all.
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I don't really have any tips but I just wanted to say I'm glad it's not only my dog that takes such an interest in hedgehogs. Only problem is mine likes to bring them into the house alive and leave them in her crate!!! She's done this twice and i still can't work out how either her or the hedgehog hasn't been in any way injured
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